Santa Cruz, Cal. Sentinel: UFW takes part in national campaign to raise 1 million cards

UFW takes part in national campaign to raise 1 million cards

By TOM RAGAN
Sentinel Staff Writer

WATSONVILLE — Several groups, including the United Farm Workers, are trying to amass more than 1 million signatures in support of an amnesty program for millions of undocumented workers across the country.

The signatures, which will be sent to Washington D.C. in the coming weeks, is being cast as the equivalent to the "Million Man March" — only in this case it’s being called "Somos America," or "We are America."

Efren Barajas, director of the UFW’s office in Watsonville, said the signature campaign got under way on Wednesday, and that the petition effort falls in lock step with the legislative itinerary in Congress.

"Something needs to be done, and something needs to be done right away," he said. "This isn’t just an issue in California. This is an issue for the entire country."

Next week the Senate is scheduled to resume debate on the issue of immigration reform, a much contentious subject ever since the House passed a bill last year that would criminally punish the nearly 11 million undocumented workers in the United States by making them felons.

Proponents of legalizing the millions of undocumented workers has divided the country into two parts: Those who support the workers because America’s economy would not be able to function without them — and those who frown on their presence because, they say, the illegals overcrowd the public schools and drain public services that should be reserved for U.S. citizens.

Diana Tellefson, the UFW’s national immigration reform field coordinator in Los Angeles, said the Senate is scheduled to take up the issue no later than May 26.

The negotiations, however, could come as early as next week.

"We feel that we can make our voices heard in hundreds of different ways, and this is another way," said Tellefson of the cards.

An estimated 500,000 undocumented farmworkers live in California and hundreds of thousands more are spread across the United States — from the citrus fields of South Texas and Florida to the peach orchards of Georgia to North Carolina’s tobacco crop.

The organizations involved in collecting the signatures include: